SM Nutrition

You Do Everything Right and Deserve to See It Pay Off

You make every practice. You push through the extra conditioning and come home too tired to talk. That kind of work should show up in your times, your stats, and your playing minutes. Instead, a stress fracture shows up in the middle of the season, or the energy that carried you through the first few weeks is gone by the playoffs. It shouldn’t work that way. You should not lose a season to something nobody told you to watch.

Stephanie Militano says the athletes who come to her are typically training hard and under-fueling, sometimes without realizing it. You won’t feel the shortfall on the day it starts, but it builds for weeks until something gives.

Stephanie is a board-certified sports dietitian, and she has spent about eight years helping athletes close that gap. She runs SM Nutrition on Jamestown Road in Williamsburg with a team of three sports dietitians, and she says about 90 percent of the people they work with are student athletes.

How a Packed Schedule Leaves You Running on Empty

You probably aren’t skipping meals on purpose. Stephanie describes a day you might recognize. It starts early and runs from school straight to training, then on to AP classes and homework. Somewhere in there you miss lunch, and dinner comes late. You never decided to under-eat, because the day ran out first.

You’d notice right away if you stopped showing up to practice. Running low on fuel is much harder to spot, and the cost comes due later as fatigue, stalled progress, and injuries.

“We don’t want nutrition or under fueling to be the reason that an athlete has a stress fracture or they’re out of the game.”

— Stephanie Militano

Every Serious Athlete Has a Team Behind Them

Top athletes don’t do it alone. They have strength coaches, trainers, and people on the sidelines keeping them healthy. Stephanie says you need that same full team, with mental health support, hydration, nutrition, and strength and conditioning all covered. She built her practice to be the nutrition piece of it.

Every dietitian at SM Nutrition is a sports dietitian with a specialty of their own, including one who focuses on digestive issues like IBS and celiac disease. Stephanie also says a lot of families don’t realize insurance usually covers nutrition sessions. Most plans cover at least a few sessions at 100 percent, sometimes with a small co-pay.

You leave with a fueling plan built around your schedule, and you get back the energy you’ve been training without.

Four Pillars Behind Every SM Nutrition Fueling Plan

Whether you’re in middle school, high school, or playing professionally, your plan follows the same four pillars Stephanie’s team uses with every athlete, because the basics matter most.

Fuel is what’s on your plate, meaning carbs, protein, fats, and color from fruits and vegetables. Finesse is timing, or what you eat before, during, and after training. Stephanie calls it almost more important than the food itself. When you practice every day, sometimes twice, your window to recover is short, and good timing helps your muscles make the most of it. Fluids covers hydration and electrolytes, including what you drink and when.

Ice Cream After the Game Is Part of the Plan

You might picture a dietitian handing you cucumbers, hummus, and cottage cheese. Stephanie is a New Yorker whose favorite food is ice cream, and she loves pizza and bagels too, so the fourth pillar is fun.

Celebrating a game with ice cream or having pizza with your family on a Friday night brings joy back to eating. Stephanie wants you eating for fun as well as for a goal.

You Don’t Need a Smaller Body to Be a Stronger Athlete

Stephanie recently worked with a Division I distance runner on a full scholarship. He was the top runner on his team and hitting personal records, and he still felt like he didn’t look like his teammates. She told him his body didn’t have to change for him to be better.

“Your body doesn’t have to look a certain way to be incredible.”

— Stephanie Militano

If you feel pressure to be thin, you’re not alone. It’s a big concern for the athletes Stephanie sees, and it’s where sports nutrition and eating disorder care overlap. She helps you find the point where you’re strongest and most energized, which isn’t necessarily your smallest body. You need a fueled brain in the classroom as much as a fueled body in the game, and cutting food hurts both.

Eating Disorder Recovery With a Full Care Team

SM Nutrition also specializes in eating disorder and disordered eating recovery through medical nutrition therapy. The work covers what to eat and also why some foods feel safe while others feel hard.

Stephanie works alongside a trusted group of local therapists and physicians, one of whom shares a wall with her office. Your therapist works through family history, anxiety, and depression. Your physician monitors heart rate and blood pressure. Stephanie handles the nutrition. Recovery sessions usually run weekly or every other week, and some clients have worked with her for three years or more, because steady recovery takes time.

You Walk Out With a Plan in Writing

Sessions happen in person or virtually. If you’re a younger athlete, a parent or guardian sits in with you. Stephanie starts by asking you to walk her through a typical day. Then she opens a laptop and builds your fueling plan with you from a blank screen, because every athlete and every family is different.

After each session you get a written summary with your plan, goals for the weeks ahead, breakfast, lunch, and dinner ideas, and plenty of recipes. Stephanie tells her team to overshare recipes, because your reactions show what you like. Everything lives in an online portal where you can message the team. When it’s needed, your summary includes supplement guidance, lab recommendations, or questions to bring to your doctor. You don’t have to take notes during the session, and Stephanie says the tools usually carry over to your whole family.

Most sports clients meet every other week for the first several months while the plan comes together, then move to monthly check-ins. One athlete has worked with Stephanie all through high school and into college, checking in before, during, and after each season.

Stephanie Learned Fueling the Hard Way

Stephanie knows where you are because she was there. She grew up as an athlete and needed nutrition as a tool, but nobody around her did sports nutrition. She had injuries tied to under-fueling and bone weakness that the right plan could have prevented, and her performance improved once she had one.

Stephanie, originally from New York, came to Williamsburg to be the dietitian at William & Mary. About a month into the job, she started her practice part-time, and in 2022 she took it full-time.

Sports Nutrition in Williamsburg, In Person and Across Virginia

You can meet Stephanie’s team in person at the Jamestown Road office, or virtually from anywhere between Northern Virginia and Virginia Beach and Suffolk. Stephanie says about 80 percent of her clients are in Virginia, and she’s also licensed in New York, Georgia, North Carolina, and Ohio. One team member offers evening virtual sessions, so you and your parents can meet with a dietitian over dinner.

Stephanie recently hired her third dietitian because athletes were landing on a waitlist, and she doesn’t think you should have to wait. Her team also gives talks for local high school teams, parents, and coaches. Her Fuel Her Game workshop for female athletes has run online for the past few years, and this November it runs both virtually and in person for the first time. She’s also bringing in colleagues to cover mental health, physical therapy, and injury prevention.

Give Your Hard Work the Fuel It Deserves

You already train like it matters, and your fuel deserves the same attention. SM Nutrition gives you a plan built around your week, a team that knows sports, and the energy to finish strong. Visit smnutritionrd.com to meet Stephanie’s team and learn how to get started. You put in the work, and you deserve to play every game of the season you trained for.